I could totally see railway stations becoming “hubs”, with restaurants/bars/coffeeshops for people to just hang out pre/post journey. In SFBA the Caltrain stations are totally deserted and have maybe a parking lot; this seemed really unusual to me as someone who grew up in Mumbai where the train stations have all kinds of stores selling food/books etc. It seemed so… dead. Somewhat alarmingly they don’t even have public restrooms!
This is predicated on foot traffic though. And American transit systems are, let’s say, not the most appealing. I do hope that it changes.
> In SFBA the Caltrain stations are totally deserted
Whilst some are, there are also a lot that are right next to "downtown areas" with restaurants/bars/coffeeshops. Sunnyvale, Mt View, Palo Alto, Redwood City for examples.
Are you thinking just of the San Francisco terminus or the current "pre-Google development" San Jose Diridon terminus?
This is the model being tried at the Miami Brightline station. The owners were (are?): Florida East Coast Industries, which is owned by Fortress Investment Group, which owned by Japanese conglomerate Softbank.
This is predicated on foot traffic though. And American transit systems are, let’s say, not the most appealing. I do hope that it changes.